Fashion Design

Fashion design is the applied art dedicated to clothing and lifestyle accessories created within the cultural and social influences of a specific time.

It is considered to have a planned obsolescence usually of one to two seasons. A season is defined as either autumn/winter or spring/summer.

Nowadays, even though French, British, Japanese and American fashion are the top in style, Italian fashion is considered the most important and elegant in design and it has led the world of fashion since the 1970s and '80s.

Structure

Fashion designers can work in a number of ways. Fashion designers may work full-time for one fashion company, known as in-house designers, which owns the designs. They may work alone or as part of a team. Freelance designers works for themselves, and sell their designs to fashion houses, directly to shops, or to clothing manufacturers. The garments bear the buyer's label. Some fashion designers set up their own labels, under which their designs are marketed. Some fashion designers are self-employed and design for individual clients. Other high-fashion designers cater to specialty stores or high-fashion department stores. These designers create original garments, as well as those that follow established fashion trends. Most fashion designers, however, work for apparel manufacturers, creating designs of men’s, women’s, and children’s fashions for the mass market. Large designer brands which have a 'name' as their brand such as Calvin Klein, Gucci, Ralph Lauren, or Chanel are likely to be designed by a team of individual designers under the direction of a designer director.